Agri-Food Recycler Helps Supermarket Chain Divert Organic Waste

Supermarket chain Hy-Vee has partnered with agri-food recycler Sanimax to help all 25 of Nebraska stores divert organic waste from landfills.

Nebraska Hy-Vee stores will divert excess fruits and vegetables, bakery products, solid dairy products and floral clippings and the Sanimax system will then turn the food waste into compost, biogas and animal feed. Hy-Vee employees at each store will be trained on how to separate the waste to ensure quick and accurate disposal.

As part of the program, Hy-Vee stores will sell compost that is created by their own food recycling. In addition, stores with community gardens will use the compost to fertilize their plots.

In March, two Omaha-area Hy-Vee stores were first to begin the program, and they diverted a total of 10,000 pounds of waste that month. The estimates that the 25 Hy-Vee stores in Nebraska will divert about 150,000 pounds each month.

In other food waste reduction efforts, last month the EPA announced that Disneyland Resort has diverted more than 7 million pounds of food scraps from entering landfills since 2013 and is the first theme park in the US to receive zero waste certification at one facility — achievements that helped the theme park win an EPA 2014 Food Recovery Challenge award.